Monumento a Wolfgang Goethe - Roma, Italy - Gifts from Other Countries on Waymarking.com

The monument was made in Carrara marble by the sculptor Valentino Casali on the model of Gustav Eberlein. It was donated by William II of Germany, in memory of the hospitality offered by Rome to the poet. It was inaugurated on June 23, 1904.

The statue of the poet alone is three meters high. He is represented at a young age, dressed in an elegant suit with a cape on his left arm and a notebook in his right hand. At the base of the statue are three groups of sculptures concerning three phases of Goethe's poetics, representing: Mignon and Lotario (left front), for lyric poetry; Ifigenia and Oreste (front right) for dramatic poetry; and Faust & Mephisto (back) for didactic poetry.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His works include four novels; epic and lyric poetry; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; and treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him have survived.

A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, in 1782 after taking up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's privy council, sat on the war- and highway-commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines in nearby Ilmenau, and implemented a series of administrative reforms at the University of Jena. He also contributed to the planning of Weimar's botanical park and the rebuilding of its Ducal Palace. (In 1998 both these sites together with nine others were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site under the name Classical Weimar.

Sources: Wikipedia (visit link) and (visit link)

Country or International City that Gave the Gift: Germany Country or International City that Received the Gift: Rome Website Verifying this Item as a Gift from Another Country or International City: [Web Link]

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